Chores by month Ideas, Tips & Guides

THE NEW SEASON IS HEATING UP, at least visually, even as temperatures trend downward. Cleanup is (hopefully) under way in earnest, with time out to cook up the last bits from the vegetable garden into a batch of ‘Tomato Junk’ or soup, or local/homegrown apples into easy applesauce, checking on the kettles between rounds of raking and cutbacks outdoors. With such delicious reminders of summer and fall in the freezer, and the right plants in the garden, there’s no “end” to fear. Some of us even feel happy about the coming riches: berries and other fruits, bark, new birds. PEAK PLANTING TIME for bulbs and for many woody things continues through month’s end or so; make that work include some focus on the addition of fall and winter plants to the landscape.GARDEN CLEANUP, though, is the primary order of the day—and don’t forget: quickly stash your tender things as frost threatens or just after, depending on the plant, to carry them through the winter. Here we go:TREES & SHRUBSCLEAR TURF OR WEEDS fro

Yes, there are a lot of chores vying for attention:  whether to deadhead the spring bulbs, or edge the beds they’re growing in; divide that overgrown drift of some perennial, or pot up the annuals for a summertime show ahead; mow or mulch and so on.  But let’s not get crazy—let’s go area by area through the list:vegetable gardenMAKING NEW BEDS? A nature-inspired method for raised-bed building, using fallen branches and logs, is called hugelkultur—and it’s fascinating, and effective, if you’re expanding your growing area.TUBERS AND SLIPS: Are the white potatoes in the ground? Sweet potatoes can go in this month, too.MY NEW SEED-STARTING TOOL will tell you when to sow what, indoors and out. Also fo

OR TRY THIS ESCAPE: Force branches of spring-blooming shrubs and trees like pussy willow, forsythia, apple and cherry once buds have begun to swell. Cut on an angle and put indoors in water. I submerge them overnight, then place them in a bucket of water in my mudroom, draped with a plastic bag, until the buds push off their coverings. The closer to actual bloom date you try to force things, the higher the success rate (no big surprise).COLORFUL TWIGS from shrub dogwoods and willows would make good indoor arrangements now, and many want stooling (cutting to maybe 8 inches from the ground) every other or third year.TAKE A WALKABOUT, unless the ground is muddy (I don’t walk on sodden soil; it does such damage). Check to see if mulches are in place or if they’ve heaved, or if burlap and other protectors have come loose, exposing vulnerable plants to possible heaving damage or windburn.MOLE PATROL CONTINUES, in perpetuity: I am still re-baiting mousetraps under boxes, buckets or cans in the gard

Peak planting time for bulbs and for many woody things continues through month’s end or so; make that work include some focus on the addition of fall and winter plants to the landscape.Garden cleanup, though, is the primary order of the day—and don’t forget: quickly stash your tender things as frost threatens or just after, depending on the plant, to carry them through the winter. Here we go:TREES & SHRUBSCLEAR TURF OR WEEDS from the area right around the trunks of fruit trees and ornamentals to reduce winter damage by rodents. Hardware cloth collars should be in place year-round as well.BE EXTRA-VIGILANT cleaning up under fruit trees, as fallen fruit and foliage allowed to overwinter

Seed-catalog season gets going in earnest later in the month, so early December is prime time to inventory leftover seeds and store them in a cool, dry place. A friend stashes his in the fridge, first sealing in zipper bags with the air squeezed out, then placing the bags in a sealed plastic box rather than having strays get lost among the yogurt and mayonnaise. If you want to test your germination rate now, here’s how. Toss those more than a few years old and make a list of what you’ll need. Not that any act of self-control stops me from ordering yet another gourd or pumpkin variety, or some oddity I simply must have or perish. My list of favorite s

AS YOU BEGIN to wind down and clean up, take notes of what worked and didn’t. Mark areas that would have been easier to maintain with a workhorse groundcover in place, for instance, or areas where more bulbs might fit. I have already made a walkabout and identified a few shrubs whose days are numbered; just not enough bang for the buck (well, for the space they take up).TREES & SHRUBSBE SURE TO WATER trees and shrubs now through hard frost, so that they enter dormancy in a well-hydrated state. Evergreens (needled ones and broadleaf types like rhododendron, too) are particularly vulnerable to desiccation and winterburn if not well watered before the cold and winds set in.DON’T PANIC IF EVERGREENS start to show some browning or yellowing of needles this month and next. The oldest, innermost needles typically shed after a few years on the tree.HOPEFULLY YOU STOPPED FEEDING woody plants

Like the journalist I was trained to be, I’m always editing the garden, and good thing, since by August in a dry year like this one has been, it needs another round. Gaps in the perennial beds (preferable with a little fresh mulch applied) will look better than a hosta that’s had it, or an anemic-looking bleeding heart.Focal points: weeds and water. Every weed pulled now is a hundred (a million?) you don’t have to deal with later. Don’t let them go to seed. Make a pass through each bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Too many to handle in a particular area? Smother them with cardboard and mulch, like this.If your garden is dry, don’t waste water on lawns, which will bounce back from brown when cooler, moister days return—or on washing down paths and patios. Sweep instead! Target water offerings to the most precious subjects, particularly recently planted things and the vegetable garden.

FIRST, THE HAIRCUTS: Many perennials (euphorbia, some true geraniums, ribbon grass orPhalaris) do better the second half of the seasonif cut back hard. Others need just deadheading. Annuals that grow leggy can often benefit from a chop job, too. Do some experiments. Sometimes a plant can’t look worse, and you probably won’t kill it. :-)MAKE A PASS through each bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Top up mulch in all garden beds if washed or worn away to help in the plight.IF YOU ARE IN JAPANESE BEETLE territory, handpick (as with other obvious pests like tomato hornworms) in early morning and drown in a can of water to reduce infe

THE NEW SEASON IS HEATING UP, at least visually, even as temperatures trend downward. I’ll be interested to see what the fall foliage season amounts to after what seems like a record wet year. I wonder if it will come close to last year (which was dry). I will say the fruiting plants here have produced abundant crops (like hollies, viburnums, and crabapples).TIME TO COOK UP the last bits from the vegetable garden into a batch of ‘Tomato Junk’ or soup, or local/homegrown apples into easy applesauce, checking on the kettles between rounds of raking and cutbacks outdoors. All my harvest-stashing tips are recapped here. With such delicious reminders of summer and fall in the freezer, and the right plants in the garden, there’s no “end” to fear. Some of us even feel happy about the coming riches: berries and other fruits, bark, a new season of birds.PEAK PLANTING TIME for bulbs

I typically close out November and begin December by quickly re-checking myself around Thanksgiving for anything forgotten, before it’s really too late. A hose bib not drained for winter; a partial row of potatoes still in the ground; another skimming of the water gardens for leaves that scuttled in since my last pass. Oh, and that last bag of bulbs I seem to have misplaced—till now.An early dump of 10 or so inches of heavy, wet snow the Wednesday before the holiday interrupted the final 2014 countdown, but now that it’s melting I am back on the punchlist:Are any

THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES lies just ahead. Gardeners, like their gardens, benefit from a bit of dormancy, and the time is upon us. Enjoy it.THIS YEAR I’M MARKING where the beds and paths meet, and where the driveway meets lawn. I bought a bundle of tall, flexible fiberglass rods to drive into the ground as markers to try to keep my shoveling and plowing in bounds. Wish me luck!SEED-CATALOG SEASON GETS GOING in earnest later in the month, so early December is prime time to inventory leftover seeds and store them in a cool, dry place. A friend stashes

VEGETABLE GARDENTUBERS AND SLIPS: Are the white potatoes in the ground? Sweet potatoes can go in this month, too.CONTINUE SOWING CARROTS, beets, radishes, salad greens, dill. With salad greens, select heat-resistant varieties now for best results as they’ll bump into warmer weather. A primer on when to start what seeds.DIRECT-SOW BEANS at mid-month and beyond; sow a short row e

I KNOW, I KNOW: Why can’t it just last; why does it all have to start to flop and fade and fall apart? The spring garden, that is. June is the month when spring turns to summer—often well before the official moment (June 20 at 7:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time in 2012). Remember those gorgeous lilacs, rhododendron, flowering bulbs? Beautiful memories, yes, but also big brown messes everywhere. Uh-oh, get ready for another cleanup! Shall we tackle it together, one thing at a time (in print, and in podcast version)?

WATERING IS another major focus; if you’re dry, don’t waste water on lawns, which will bounce back from brown in time when cooler, moister days return. Target your offerings to the most precious subjects, particularly recently planted things.MAKE A PASS through each bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Top up mulch in all garden beds if washed or worn away to help in the plight.TREES & SHRUBSDON’T FEED WOODY plants any more (better, even, to stop in July). Promoting more soft growth in high summer isn’t good; time for them to start moving toward the hardening-off phase of their cycle. No more eats till earliest spring.TREES ARE e

BEFORE we start: Last month I asked if you’d set the tone for your 2015 garden? This year’s mantra is “Be thoughtful, keep weeding,” with the “thoughtful” part standing for “thoughtful organic gardening,” as in thinking carefully before any action is taken. My resolutions. (A year earlier, I’d suggested, “More mulch, no spray,” another way to say: Be kind.)10 steps to get the season startedI FEEL FRANTIC, but know that being strategic is a smarter attitude in the face of April’s heroic to-do’s. I try to stick to these 10 steps, as I begin erasing winter’s havoc.Start cleanup near the house. Tidying beds along the most-traveled front walkway early reminds me that I can do this, a little at a

THE FALL IS COMING, the fall is coming. Nothing to worry about, Chicken Little, if the garden’s been planned for enjoyment in all seasons…well, unless you slack off now and let those foxy weeds go to seed and gobble up the whole place. No, no definitive “end” to the season lies ahead, and some of us even feel happy about the coming of slightly quieter, more contemplative times where less obvious garden stars can shine.PEAK PLANTING AND DIVIDING time is upon us; make that work include some focus on the addition of fall and winter plants to the landscape.Maybe something gold?Maybe something full of fruit, like this or this or this?AS YOU BEGIN to wind down and clean up, take notes of what worked and didn’t. Mark areas that would have been easier to maintain with a workhorse groundcover in place, for ins

AS YOU BEGIN to wind down and clean up, take notes of what worked and didn’t. Mark areas that would have been easier to maintain with a workhorse groundcover in place, for instance, or areas where more bulbs might fit. I have already made a walkabout and identified a few shrubs whose days are numbered; just not enough bang for the buck (well, for the space they take up).TREES & SHRUBSBE SURE TO WATER trees and shrubs now through hard frost, so that they enter dormancy in a well-hydrated state–particularly if you have had a dry season as I have. Evergreens (needled ones and broadleaf types like rhododendron, too) are particularly vulnerable to desiccation and winterburn if not well watered before the cold and winds set in.DON’T PANIC IF EVERGREENS start to show some browning or yellowing of needles this month and next. The oldest, innermost needles typically shed after a few years on the tr

MAKE A PASS through each garden bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Apply mulch to all beds to help in the plight.GARDENS NEED an inch of water a week from you or the heavens. Check your rain gaugeto make sure they get it, and remember: Soak deeply in the root zone. Don’t spritz things with a sprayer now and again like you’re washing the car. That’s a garden no-no. Pots need extra attention, especially smallish ones in sun, and they also need regular feeding. Be alert!TREES & SHRUBSBE ON THE LOOKOUT for dead, da

VEGETABLE GARDENTUBERS AND SLIPS: Are the white potatoes in the ground? Sweet potatoes can go in this month, too.CONTINUE SOWING CARROTS, beets, radishes, salad greens, dill. With salad greens, select heat-resistant varieties now for best results as they’ll bump into warmer weather.DIR

First, though, I recommend a long, hard look. I walked around outside the last week of June with a pad and pen–and a critical eye. In the flurry of spring prep, planting and pruning, I’d been working around some problems rather than tackling them properly.Where perennials or even worse, shrubs, are bulging out of the beds and drooping onto the lawn, it’s time for a decision. (And no, the decision cannot be “mow around them and deal with it later,” which is what I always do in a few spots in spring.) Time to either reduce the plants by division or pruning, or make the bed bigger, easing passage around its perimeter. I’m doing some of each (but waiting for fall weather for the divisions if it stays hot and relatively dry here).NOW, ONWARD! JULY STARTS OUT as Throw In the Trowel Month here, with June’s cutbacks s

MAKE A PASS through each garden bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Apply mulch to all beds to help in the plight.GARDENS NEED an inch of water a week from you or the heavens. Check your rain gaugeto make sure they get it, and remember: Soak deeply in the root zone. Don’t spritz things with a sprayer now and again like you’re washing the car. That’s a garden no-no. Pots need extra attention, especially smallish ones in sun, and they also need regular feeding. Be alert!TREES & SHRUBSBE ON THE LOOKOUT for dead, damaged, diseased wood in tree

FIRST, THE HAIRCUTS: If you were squeamish about cutbacks as spring faded, you may be regretting it now, and facing floppy, exhausted plants in certain spots. Some things (like certain perennial Geraniums, for instance) do better if cut back hard. Go for it. Others need just deadheading of spent blooms. Annuals that grow leggy can often benefit from a chop job, too. Do some experiments. Sometimes a plant can’t look worse, and you probably won’t kill it. :-)MAKE A PASS through each bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Top up mulch in all garden beds if washed or worn away to help in the plight.LOOK WHILE WEEDING: Try to remember what’s done well (and not so well) so far in each bed. Make notes, to

IT’S DEFINITELY TRANSITION TIME right now here in Zone 5B. Chipmunks are out; red-winged blackbirds have begun to return just as February slipped away. But it can be garden-cleanup season, or still deep winter, or some of both in March. Sticks and stones picked up or raked away—if you can even get outside at all—often are replaced at once with another supply from on high, as if you really needed a do-over. Oh, well.HOARD CARDBOARD AND NEWSPAPER while you wait, to smother areas for new beds, or thwart weeds under fresh mulch in existing ones.WHILE INDOOR CHORES such as seed-sowing commence on schedule regardless of weather, outdoor chores sometimes wait until April. Caveat emptor: Be sensible and don’t muck around in too-wet soil or walk unnecessarily on sodden lawns. Love your soil, and protect it.YOUR PLANT ORDERS should be in the mail, or heading that way. When things arrive, bare-root woody plants will take priority in planting, so think

Some “fixes” are obvious: I’ll raise the deck on the mower to a longer cut, assuming the weather heats up and rain tapers. I’ll soak beds deeply (unless ample rain does first!), then clean up their edges and top up mulch. In many spots I’m being downright brutal with more “edits” and cutbacks. (I know, I gave a lot of haircuts in June to things like perennial geraniums and euphorbias, but the barbershop is still open here apparently, with bleeding hearts, groundcover sedums that flowered recently, Phalaris or ribbon grass and more getting hacked to the ground. Celandine poppy, orStylophorum diphyllum, too.)July is also a big month for the vegetable garden, and not just of harvesting: I’m sowing fresh crops to enjoy this fall (like more peas); more on doing a tuneup in the edible garden below.Frankly, July always starts out as Throw In the Trowel Month here, and I often do feel overwhelmed. But then summer shapes up and t

YES, THIS THE MONTH when the spring garden, all promise and freshness, fades to a picture of widespread deadheads, and weeds really start testing us. We shall overcome! Multiple bouts of heat in some areas may have put things off course a bit, and you’ll find yourself doing chores already that usually come mid-month. Here, it was cold forever, and then whoosh, we baked (and caught up). Go with the flow, right? Here’s where I begin this month or thereabouts (and probably never end, the usual story with the to-do list…but it makes me feel better having it, anyhow):MAKE A PASS through each garden bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Apply mulch to all beds to help in the plight.GARDENS NEED an inch of water a week from you or the heavens. Check your rain gaugeto make sure they get it, a

CALL IT TRANSITION TIME right now here in Zone 5B. It can be garden-cleanup season, or still deep winter, or some of both. Sticks and stones picked up or raked away—if you can even get outside at all—often are replaced at once with another supply from on high, as if you really needed a do-over. Oh, well.HOARD CARDBOARD AND NEWSPAPER while you wait, to smother areas for new beds, or thwart weeds under fresh mulch in existing ones.WHILE INDOOR CHORES such as seed-sowing commence on schedule regardless of weather, outdoor chores sometimes wait until April. Caveat emptor: Be sensible and don’t muck around in too-wet soil or walk unnecessarily on sodden lawns. Love your soil, and protect it.YOUR PLANT ORDERS should be in the mail, or heading that way. When things arrive, bare-root woody plants will take pri

I SOMETIMES THINK THAT AUGUST, not April, is the cruelest month (though T.S. Eliot famously thought otherwise, and spelled it cruellest for good measure). It is typically hazy, hot and humid…but that’s no excuse for stopping: Every weed pulled now is a hundred (a thousand?) you don’t have to deal with later. Don’t let them go to seed.WATERING IS ANOTHER major focus; if you’re dry, don’t waste water on lawns, which will bounce back from brown when cooler, moister days return. Target offerings to the most precious subjects, particularly recently planted things.MAKE A PASS through each bed each week, since weeds are

Particularly up North, it’s an if-and-when kind of month, as in: Do things on this list if and when the snow melts, the ground defrosts, and mud starts to drain off and dry. If and when. Not before! The biggest caveat: Don’t walk or work in too-wet soil, or trod on sodden lawns. Love your soil, and protect it.Speaking of garden stewardship: Did you take my more mulch, no sprays pledge for greener growing in 2014? Order mulch now, preferably a bulk delivery—skipping all those plastic bags, and ideally choosing a locally produced material. What makes good mulch, and how to use it.No matter what the weather: Empty nest boxes of old nests, and mayb

In my Zone 5B, if we made it through September without a frost (we did!) we’re unlikely to escape another month. Wherever you are, it’s probably tick, tick, tick. So first things first: As temperatures trend downward, and weather gets more unsettled, tender things that are still outdoors or otherwise unprotected need your attention at once, in order of just how tender they are. How to overwinter tropicals and other non-hardy plants.I’m picking away already at garden cleanup, which by mid-month or so will involve a lot of raking well into November. Leaves can be precious, and make great leaf mold when composted. Maybe start a leaves-only compost pile this year? Running over dry leaves (and other dry non-woody material) with the mower to shred will reduce the area needed for such piles.Don’t clean up too soon, though. If a perennial

“What have I forgotten?” is the theme of December, especially early on, while there is still time to react and make things ready. Are any hoses still on “live” taps, for instance, or non-weatherproof pots still sitting, shivering, out in the open?Is the potted rosemary still outside in its pot, or maybe the fig(both of which could use a little help about now in cold climates).The water garden needs immediate attention and winterizing, to avoid burst plumbing; here’s how.Did you forget to smother that weedy area out back, in the hopes of starting spring off a little easie

Where perennials or even worse, shrubs, are bulging out of the beds and drooping onto the lawn, it’s time for a decision. (And no, the decision cannot be “mow around them and deal with it later,” which is what I have done in a few spots this spring.) Time to either reduce the plants by division or pruning, or make the bed bigger, easing passage around its perimeter. I’m doing some of each.Are some spots that seem to invite weeds to sow with wild abandon—like the driveway, or other gravel surfaces, or cracks between paving stones—requiring hours of finger-numbing work (or, more likely, just being left unweeded)? Again, decision time. To solarize (lay down black plastic sheeting, weighted with rocks, and use summer heat

WHERE TO BEGIN with the massive job called fall cleanup? Top on our chores list this month: a 7-point program to help us all focus—along with some critical note-taking on the 2014 garden, as we’re teasing it apart.fall cleanup: the short versionLeave especially ornamental or wildlife-friendly plants standing. Don’t act as if you’re vacuuming the living room; clean up beds tactically for maximum enjoyment by you and the birds.Remove sickly things first. Destroy the debris to minimize next year’s issues with squash bugs, cabbage worms, voles, and other pests and diseases.

BY AUGUST, BOTH GARDEN AND GARDENER can be looking a little tired. If only I can muster the stamina, both of us can be in much better shape before long. The primary tactics: watering, of course, and weeding, but I’m also looking to freshen things up visually by re-edging beds whose lines have grown fuzzy, and topping up the mulch.  There’s nothing I can do to repair holes in leaves left behind by hailstorms, or other such woes—but I can trick the eye, at least, and make the overall picture a little cleaner and sharper.Yes, I sometimes think that August, not April, is the cruelest month (though T.S. Eliot famously thought otherwise, and spelled it cruellest for good measure). It is typically hazy, hot and humid…but that’s no excuse for stopping: Every weed pulled now is a hundred (a thousand?) you don’t have to deal with later. Don’t let them go to seed. Make a pass through each bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but

NEW BEGINNINGS, ALMOST: The last bit of winter’s the hardest, to my mind, with patience wearing thin (wish some icy spots would wear thin, instead). Getting ready for seed-starting action provides a distraction, and one could always order a few more packets to soothe the soul. I recently updates my list of favorite sources, and not long ago, readers shared their favorite seed catalogs, too.DID YOU DO YOUR germination testing yet to see what leftovers are still viable? And do you have a light stand to grow your seedlings on (my big old seed-starter stand plan is here; I got a small newer one made last year). Here’s my new chart on how long seeds last, by the way.OR TRY THIS ESCAPE: Force branches of spring-blooming shrubs and trees like pussy willow, forsythia, apple and cherry once buds have begun to swell. Cut on an angle or better yet hammer the ends of stems to make for better water uptake, and put indoors in water. I submerge them over

I’ve said in the past that I think of the August chores list as a form of spot cleaning—a headstart on fall cleanup, one blemish at a time. Thinking of it that way makes it more palatable, frankly: a leg up on work I’d have to do later, anyhow? OK; I can handle that.I can’t fix everything, turning brown leaves green again, or sewing up holes in the Astilboides or brassicas. But I can (and must!) try to trick the eye with some targeted trimming, mulching and edging—and lots of deadheading, of course.(I say “must,” because Garden Conservancy Open Day visitors are coming August 17—do join us!)Besides the visual relief, editing out the worst bits reduces hiding places for pests and disease, so again, it’s worth it.  Let’s go:weeding and wateringWEED! Make a pass through e

I AM TEMPTED TO POST THE APRIL CHORES today instead of February, after waking up to near-50 degree temperatures yet again in this wacky nonwinter we’re having here. I could certainly get out and start fruit-tree and grape pruning, raking and ornamental grass cutbacks…and without a coat or gloves, even…but first, some planning is in order.